Ottawa International Animation Festival Deadline Approaches!

North America’s largest animation event, the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) is reminding the animation community to get their work in before it’s too late. Entry forms must be submitted online by May 20th, and preview DVDs are due by June 3rd. There is no entry fee.

This year’s event takes place September 21st to 25th and promises to turn Canada’s capital into the center of the animation universe. The Festival showcases the best new animation from around the world in six major categories including Independent Short films, Feature films, New Media, Commissioned films (TV series, commercials, music videos etc), Student films and Work Made for Children.

In addition to the Competition screenings, the 2011, event the Festival pays tribute to the bizarre, funny, angry, scary, and confusing worlds of Gil Alkabetz, Mati KÃ¼tt, and Aaron Augenblick. Honorary president, the NFB’s David Verrall gives us Ten Reasons to Love Animation. John Canemaker takes us through the art of Joe Ranft and Joe Grant, while Jerry Beck invites us to join the Cartoon Fight Club. Plus, the Festival will dig into animation in Hip-Hop Culture and have a look at our relationship with Food. Hungry yet? Additional screenings will be announced in the near future.